Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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IMPROVEMENTS ~N RECYCLING
AND REUSING GARMENT HANGERS
This patent application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application serial
number 08/472,912 which was filed on June 7, 1995. This invention relates to garment
5 hangers and specifically to a method and system for recycling and reusing garment hangers.
The method and system are applicable to garment hangers, hereafter "hangers", made from
different materials, but since the great bulk of hangers made in the world today are composed
of plastic the invention will be illustrated and described in conjunction with the processing
of plastic hangers.
BACKGROUND OF THE rNVENTION
All or nearly all, of the garments--pants, shirts, skirts, blouses, suits, dresses,
intimate apparel, etc.--manufactured in the many countries of the world which have clothing
manufacturing capability are put on hangers for presentation to the ultimate consumer in a
retail outlet. By far the most common commercial practice is to place garments on hangers
15 at the location at which the garment is manufactured, though in a few instances a garment
may be assembled to a hanger at the retail location just prior to presentation of the garment
to the ultimate consumer for sale. However, whether the hanger utilization initially occurs
at the plant of the garment manufacturer or at the retail location, business and environmental
concerns pertaining to the handling of hangers have arisen.
A major concern pertaining to the handling of hangers is the cost incident thereto. In
the typical situation a hanger, usually made of plastic, is manufactured by the hanger
manufacturer and shipped to the garment manufacturer. The garment manufacturer places the
newly made garments on hangers and then ships the garments on hangers to either a
distribution location or, more usually, directly to a retail outlet where the garment is displayed
for sale to the ultimate purchaser, a consumer. Some garments, such as men's and women's
suits, may be taken home by the consumer after purchase at the retail store on the hanger on
which it was displayed for purchase. However the large majority of hangers are removed
from the garment by a retail store clerk at the cash register or check out station, the hanger
then being discarded into a bin. At the end of a day, or at least periodically, the bin is
emptied into a trash container at the retail store. The discarded hangers, which may be of
many different shapes and sizes and produced by different hanger manufacturers, are then
disposed of as by burning, burying in a landfill, etc. Since the cost to the garment
manufacturer of a typical plastic hanger may be, for example, about 15¢ at the present time,
it can be seen that a substantial economic cost is involved in the presentation of garments on
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hangers by the retail outlet. In addition, the retail outlet is required to dispose of the
discarded hangers which entails a further cost to the retail merchant.
It is important to note that the great majority of hangers that are thus disposed of are
perfectly operable and quite capable of one or more re-uses. The material from which the
5 hanger is made, usually plastic, and the construction of the hanger, are such that the hangers
are designed to withstand severe stresses during use. The very great majority of hangers are
- thus destroyed though they are perfectly capable of further use as a garment hanger.
From the above description it will also be seen that the current system of handling
hangers is wasteful of natural resources and labor. Plastics are, for the most part, petroleum
based and, in view of the current system of destruction of plastic hangers after one use in the
commercial life of the hanger, fresh plastic from virgin petroleum base stock must be
provided. As can be appreciated, the manufacture of 10 hangers by the hanger manufacturer
is far more labor intensive, and hence expensive, than using a single hanger ten times,
assuming an economically viable system is available to collect, sort, renovate as needed, and
I j ship prior used hangers. There are also less obvious, but real, societal and environmental
costs in the current hanger handling system including the deposition of literally tons of
hangers, which are not space efficient, in landfills, and the fuel cost inherent in reducing
hangers to a base state as by burning or compressing.
It is possible of course for the retail merchant to sort hangers periodically which have
been collected in boxes and ship them to the hanger manufacturer or the garment
manufacturer. However retail store labor is usually not available to do the added sorting task,
the garment manufacturer and hanger m~nllf~cturer are not set up to receive and further
process the returned hangers. The sorting difficulties at the retail store level are particularly
formidable and include separation of look-alike hangers into groupings intended for the
original manufacturer, and the problem of disposal of that group of hangers, usually composed
of a relatively lower cost material, which are not suitable for recycling. The last mentioned
hangers are of course suitable for regrinding, but since neither the garrnent manufacturer nor
the hanger manufacturer is, at the present time, equipped to handle such hangers economically,
the retail store merchant is still presented with a disposal problem as above described.
Although the economic inefficiency inherent in the present system of handling garment
hangers has been recognized there is today no known system for recycling and reusing
garment hangers which (a) does not require sorting at the point of termination of hanger
commercial use (i.e.: at the cash register at the retail store), (b) accepts usable hangers and
hangers which have no ~urther commercial use potential and thus must be disposed of or
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reground, and (c) efficiently return reusable hangers to garment manufacturers, including
shipment from shipping origins which are more strategically located, and hence less costly in
operation, than shipments which originate from the virgin manufacturing locations.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention is a method and system for recycling and reusing garment hangers
which is local or world wide in scope, elimin~tes sorting at the used hanger generating
locations, (i.e.: generally, retail stores), handles both reusable hangers and regrind only
hangers without reskiction on mix components thereof, efficiently renovates and returns
reusable hangers to their points of further use or processing, and does all of the above on a
basis which is economically viable for the hanger manufacturer, the garment manufacturer and
the retail outlets.
In the presently preferred embodiment a hanger re-use center is established at alocation which is convenient, primarily, for shipment of pre-used hangers thereto, and,
secondarily, for shipment of renovated hangers therefrom to hanger re-use locations, said re-
use center concentrating in one location the sorting, renovating, regrinding, and shipment
functions of all hangers from all origin~ting manufacturers of the prior used hangers.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
The invention is illustrated more or less diagrammatically in the accompanying
drawing wherein:
Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the garment hanger recycling system of this
nvention;
Figure 2 is a flow chart illustrating the processing of garment hangers at the re-use
center of Figure l; and
Figure 3 is a flow chart illustrating an alternative embodiment of the processing of
25 garment hangers at the re-use center of Figure 1.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
A pleselllly preferred embodiment of the method and system for recycling and reusing
garment hangers of thls invention is indicated generally at 10 in Figure 1. The method and
system, hereafter, the "system" for convenience, is illustrated in the form it would take in a
30 typical multi-country hanger manufacturing and distribution system. The system includes (a)
a United States garment hanger origin~ting manufacturer, (b) one or more, here a plurality,
of hanger origin~ting manufacturers licensed by the U.S. hanger manufacturer to sell to U.S.
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garment m~m-f~turers, but located in other countries, (c) garment manufacturers located in
the U.S. and elsewhere, (d) a similar pattern of hanger and garment manufacturers not related
to the U.S. hanger manufacturer, (e) a plurality of U.S. retail outlets which generate used
hangers, and (f) a hanger re-use and redistribution center. For purposes of clarity and
5 understanding of the overall concept, the flow path of only reusable hangers has been sho~,vn,
the final stages of regrind hangers and the reground material, as well as scrap material, being
shown in Figure 2.
A hanger manufacturer located in the United States is indicated at 11 in Figure 1. The
handling concept associated with the manufacture, use and subsequent re-use of hangers
10 manufactured by said U.S. hanger manufacturer will be described initially to illustrate the
basic concept.
Hangers manufactured by U.S. manufacturer 11 move to two destinations.
A first batch of hangers, indicated at 12, is shipped to a U.S. garment manufacturer,
indicated at 13. Garments manufactured by manufacturer 13 are placed on hangers 12 at the
15 U.S. garment manufacturing plant 13. The garments on hangers, now denomin~te.l by the
reference numeral 14, are shipped to U.S. retailers indicated at 15.
A few U.S. retailers, and, in general, the larger retailers, order hangers directly from
a hanger manufacturer, usually in the same country in which the retail outlets are located.
To accommodate this business method, a second batch of hangers manufactured by the U.S.
20 hanger manufacturer 11 may be shipped directly to the larger retailers, as indicated at 16,
thereby by-passing the U.S. garment manufacturer. The retailer 15 then assumes the
responsibility for putting the g~rment~ on the hanger, following which the garments on
hangers are presented to the consumers at the retail outlets.
In similar fashion, re-use hangers which have been processed at the re-use center 18
25 may be shipped, as indicated at 21, directly to the retailer 15 when the retailer, as mentioned
above, assumes the responsibility for placing the garments on the hangers.
Upon sale of the garment at a retail outlet, the hangers are then separated from the
garments at the retailers at the time the retail purchasers; i.e.: ordinary consumers, buy the
garment at the retail outlet. The now bare, but once used, hangers are-collected at the retail
30 outlet in a container which may contain different sizes and models of hangers, and, very
likely. hangers from other hanger manufacturers in addition to U.S. hanger manufacturer 11.
Some of the original batch 12 of hangers together with hangers of different sizes and models
from, most likely, both hanger manufacturer 11 and other hanger manufacturers, are then
shipped in an unsorted ~rouping, as indicated at 17, to a hanger re-use center 18. After
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sorting, inspection (to remove broken or otherwise unreusable or ineligible hangers),
renovation (as needed) and packaging into containers of similar hangers, said containers are
shipped as at 20 to the U.S. garment manufacturer 13 where the hangers re-enter the garment
shipping, sale, collection and re-use process as indicated at 13 and 14.
Several companies in the hanger manufacturing business today have affiliations with
hanger manufacturers which may be located in countries outside the U.S., said affiliations
being any one or more of license, wholly-owned or joint venture arrangements with said non-
U.S. companies. It is common practice for example for a hanger manufacturing plant to be
located in a country where substantial garment manufacture takes place; indeed, hanger plants
are frequently located in close proximity to garment manufacturing plants. In the example
illustrated in Figure 1, two licensees of the U.S. hanger manufacturer, a Hong Kong hanger
manufacturer 23 and a Korean hanger manufacturer 24, manufacture hangers 25 and 26, and
ship them to Hong Kong/PRC garment manufacturers 27 and Korean garment manufacturer
28 respectively. The garments on hangers are then shipped, as indicated at 29, 30,
respectively, to U.S. retailers 15 where they are processed as above described in conjunction
with virgin hangers which originated at U.S. hanger manufacturer 11.
The method and system is not confined to hangers manufactured by, or under the
control of, a primary hanger manufacturer, such as U.S. hariger manufacturer 11. Rather, the
method and system is flexible enough to accommodate hangers manufactured by non-related
hanger m~nllf~cturers in both the U.S. and other countries.
Referring again to Figure 1, other hanger manufacturers, located in the U.S. and/or
other countries, are indicated at 32. Said non-related hanger manufacturers ship their hangers
33 to garment manufacturer plants located in any country of the world, including the U.S.,
as indicated at 34. Said worldwide garment manufacturers may have no relation to garment
manufacturers 27 and 28, or they may be identical with garment manufacturers 27 and/or 28,
or they may be a combination of one or more garment manufacturers 27 and 28 and other,
non-related garment manufacturers. For ease of understanding of the invention Figure 1
appears visually to indicate that garment manufacturers 34 are separate and distinct from
garment manufacturers 27 and 28, but it must be understood that garment manufacturers 34
are intended to be generic in meaning. The garments which have now been assembled to
hangers at plants 34 are then shipped, as indicated at 35, to U.S. retailer 15 where, like
garments on hangers from U.S. garment manufacturer 13, they are then handled in the same
fashion as above described.
tt
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It will be understood that should the large U.S. retailers wish to obtain hangers oniy
from hanger m~nl-f~rturing plants other than those associated with U.S. hanger manufacturer
11, such hangers could be shipped only from non-related hanger manufacturers 32 directly to
retailer 15.
5From the foregoing description it will be seen that once (a) a virgin hanger leaves a
U.S. hanger manufacturer heading for either a U.S. garment manufacturer or a U.S. retailer,
or (b) garments on hangers leave a garment manufacturing plant, said hangers, in effect, enter
the hanger re-use program indicated by the dotted line 37.
From a careful study of the foregoing method and system it will be appreciated that
10variations within the scope of the invention may be utilized if conditions, and particularly cost
and delivery reliability, permit.
The hanger re-use center 17 of Figure 1 is illustrated in greater detail in Figure 2
where it is characterized as a hanger re-use plant. In the following description of the method
and system details as disclosed in Figure 2 it will be assumed that the hangers entering the
l Shanger re-use plant are of different sizes and shapes, and also, of different quality in that some
are capable of re-use after sorting, inspection and renovating and others, of the single use
variety, are not suitable for re-use and hence must be reground or scraped and disposed of as
unusable material.
Hangers 17 from retailers 15 enter the hanger re-use plant 18 at entry point 40 and
20move to a collecting area 41 which holds incoming stock from many retail stores. It will be
appreciated that the hangers 17, in their entry condition, are most likely unsorted in the sense
that hangers from different hanger manufacturers and, further, hangers of different sizes,
composition and quality may be mixed together in an incoming container. This results of
course from the fact that the clerks in the retail stores merely toss all sizes, shapes and makes
25of hangers into a common container following purchase of a garment by the retail customer.
The most common hanger materials are, today, polystyrene, polypropylene and crystal styrene.
The hangers 17 are first subjected to a sorting and checking operation at sorting and
checking station 42. At station 42 workers 43 sort hangers 17 into those hangers which must
be scrapped and those hangers which may be re-used. The hangers to be scrapped are placed
30on scrap conveyor 44, and those hangers which are suitable for re-use are placed on re-use
conveyor 45.
The to-be-scrapped hangers are conveyed to a scrap sorting station 46 where one or
more sorters 47 put regrind polystyrene hangers into a polystyrene bin 48, regrind
polypropylene and crystal styrene regrind hangers in polypropylene and cry bin 49, and scrap
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hangers into scrap bin 50. The polystyrene, polypropylene and cry hangers are placed on
regrind conveyer 51 which carries the hangers to regrind station 52. The scrap hangers are
discharged from the reprocessing system as by deposit into a disposal bin 53.
Upon reaching the regrind station 52 the polystyrene, polypropylene and cry hangers
are directed to separate grinders 54, 55, 56 where, after grinding to a desired particle size, the
three types of material are directed to a hanger manufacturing plant 11 for re-manufacture into
hangers.
As mentioned, those hangers at the sorting and checking station 42 which pass
inspection and are deemed suitable for re-use are placed on re-use conveyor 45. Following
placement on the re-use conveyor 45, the sorting and checking station workers 61 inspect the
hangers to determine if an individual hanger is (a) in a clean and saleable condition or (b)
requires renovation. If a worker 61, following inspection, determines that a hanger requires
renovation to bring it up to sale condition, such renovation, including cleaning, is performed
by worker 61. Obviously other processing is included within the concept of renovation,
including tightening of loose components, removal of size indicating parts, and, possibly, even
replacement of broken or mi~sing parts. Should a worker 61 determine that a specific hanger
is too deteriorated to be quickly renovated, the worker will merely place the deteriorated
hanger on the scrap conveyor 44 where it will be processed as above described.
Although only one conveyor is indicated in Figure 2, optionally a plurality of
conveyors may be provided, one for each hanger manufacturer. Obviously one conveyor
- would be dedicated to hangers manufactured by USA hanger manufacturer 11, and the other
or others would be provided for other hanger manufacturers 32, see Figure 1.
In the continuing description of the invention it will be assumed however that hangers
of all shapes, makes and sizes are intermingled on conveyor 45.
The now renovated hangers which exit conveyor 45 at its discharge end 62 are
deposited on the loading end 63 of a sorting and packaging conveyor indicated generally at
64. After placement on conveyor 64, sorters separate the renovated hangers. For example,
sorter 65 may pick out all hangers of U.S.A. hanger manufacturer 11 moving along the
outside half 66 of conveyor 64 and place such hangers on the inside half 66 of conveyor 64.
Sorter 68 may pick out all hangers manufacturéd by non-related hanger manufacturers 32 and
place them on the inside half 67 of conveyor 64. By the same token, sorter 69 may pick out
hangers manufactured by non-related hanger manufacturers 32, etc.
Packers 70 and 71 pack like hangers into boxes 72 at packing station 73-78. Thuspacker 70 may pack all 1~" and 12" men's suit hangers into boxes 3 & 4 at packaging station
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73, one size to each box, while empty boxes I and 2 await movement into a hanger packing
position. When boxes 3 and 4 are full the platform in the paçk~ging 73 station on which
boxes 1, 2, 3 and 4 are placed is rotated 180 so that filled boxes 3 and 4 are moved from
the loading position shown in Figure 2 up to the take-away position occupied by boxes l and
5 2 in Figure 2. Rotation of the platform will of course bring empty boxes l and 2 into a
loading position, and the packer 70 then commences to fill boxes 1 and 2.
It will be understood that if more lO" and 12" men's suit hangers reach station 73 than
workers 70 can pack given the speed of the conveyor, the capacity of the boxes and the down
time of the pac~ging station while filled boxes are rotated to a take away position and empty
lO boxes are brought to a filling position, a down line packer at a down line packaging station
may also pack 10" and 12" men's suit hangers. If however packer 71 is able to pack all 10"
and 12" men's suit hangers of hanger manufacturer 11 at station 73, then a down line packer
71 will pack only ladies suits and dresses hangers at station 74, and so on through station 78.
The hangers, after packaging in boxes 1-24 of packaging stations 73-78 are then
15 moved to the Finished Goods for Resale area 80. As orders are received for shipment, the
renovated re-use hangers move to a USA garment manufacturer 13 as shown at 18, or,
alternatively, directly to a retailer 15 as shown at 21, (see Figure 1).
It will be noted that hanger re-use center 17 may be located at the most convenient and
economical location; i.e., it need not be located at a specific location mandated by a single
20 factor, such as the location of a hanger manufacturer. If, for example, a large quantity of
used hangers are generated in a well defined geographic area, such as the Northeastern
seaboard from, for example, Washington D.C. to Boston, Massachusetts, it may be most
convenient, all factors considered, including freight and labor rates, to locate the hanger re-use
plant near Philadelphia, even though the USA garment manufacturer 13 and hanger
25 manufacturer 11 may be located near Chicago. If on the other hand a sufficient quantity of
used hangers are only generated over a large geographic area, such as the Midwest, it may
be most convenient to locate the hanger re-use plant 18 next door to a USA garment
manufacturer 13 so that those hangers required by garment manufacturer 13 can be moved
from a shipping dock 81, see Figure 2, at hanger re-use plant 18 by an endless overhead
30 conveyor directly to the garment-hanger ~ chment station in the garment plant of the
garment manufacturer 13.
Referring now to the alternative embodiment of the re-use center of Figure 1 as
illustrated in Figure 3, it will be noted that mechanical or, more accurately, automated sorting
means 83 have been incorporated into the system in partial or full replacement of the sorters
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47 shown in Figure 2. Specifically, in this instance, an infrared sorting device has been
located at the discharge end of the scrap conveyor, the device functioning to distinguish
between polystyrene on the one hand and polypropylene and/or crystal styrene on the other
hand, and, after sensing the presence of one or the other, automatically operating to divert
each sensed material into the appropriate bin 48 or 49 or even additional bins if the device
is calibrated to distinguish between polypropylene and crystal styrene. Once a used hanger
reaches bin 48 or 49 it is processed as described above.
It will be understood that, at the present time, while the sorting device 83 candistinguish between the type of material presented to it, such devices cannot make judgment
decisions as to those hangers suitable for re-use, i.e.; mainly regrinding, and those hangers
which, due to some economically unrehabilitatable condition cannot be re-used and must be
isolated and removed from the system. The operators of the system thus have the option of
(a) lumping all hangers which are not clearly sortable into bins 48 and 49 into an "all other"
category which are automatically diverted to scrap bin 50, or, (b) using human personnel to
make the judgment decision. If some human personnel is used, which is preferable because
even a polystyrene hanger, for example may not be suitable for re-guiding for one reason or
another, only a single operator is generally required as contrasted to a plurality of sorters as
indicated in Figure 2.
From the foregoing it will be seen that a method and system for recycling and re-using
garment hangers has been disclosed which is local or worldwide in application, elimin~tes
sorting and disposal of hangers at retail outlets, renovates and re-uses those hangers which are
re-usable in either their originally manufactured or reground form and accomplishes said
objectives in a manner which is economically viable for the hanger manufacturer, the garment
manufacturer and the retail outlet merchants.
Although a preferred embodiment of the invention has been illustrated and described
it will at once be apparent to those skilled in the art that modifications may be made within
the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, it is intended that the scope of the
invention be limited not by the scope of the foregoing exemplary description, but solely by
the scope of the hereafter appended claims when mterpreted in light of the relevant prior art.
